Now I can say “out there”, but having been to Colorado and seen the stunning scenery and met the friendly people and been on conferences and vacations there, it is far from being a remote “out there”. Colorado is woven into my being becuase of the good experiences.

I learned today that good friends of my folks could see the fire from their home in the Colorado Springs area, and two or three days ago were prepared to evacuate. I now understand they have not been heard from since that last contact. Watching the live feeds from the area yesterday I can only hope they are all right and still have a home to return to. Thousands of people have been forced to evacuate because of those fast – moving and -raging fires, fed by strong winds, very low humidity, and extremely dry conditions.

Beautiful Colorado has become a tinderbox. Thick black and gray smoke bring heaviness to the air; glows from burning homes and other structures light up sections of the hills and feed that pall of horrible smoke which stretches for miles from the fire’s point of origin. Seeing the breakdown of the disaster on The Weather Channel brought home the scope of the trouble.

I can say “home”… it “brought home” to me the problems those folks are facing. There is perspective for troubled minds in the cities and towns, a wake -up call for those who have homes, provision, work and safe roads to travel. It is a definite wake -up call for us who are not affected directly by the closure of an interstate (I – 25), who have not been forced from home with only the essentials, our pets, our documents and our children. This morning I was feeling a terrible bout of anxiety, this feeling and awful sensation that many Americans feel because we are so cut off from tradition, basics, and instincts. I went home early from my job and even while walking to the bus regretted the decision to leave; had I not been so tired I certainly would have stayed on and finished my shift.

When perspective returned I realized that the basics needed involve patience, keeping an open mind, not worrying or buzzing the mind about with concerns and extreme emotions, and not trying to predict what is going to happen during a particular shift or during an average work day. It is like baseball – no game is the same, no encounter is the same, no inning is like another. Conditions are different every time, the people are different, the winds and temperatures are different. What need have we for angst, troubles, and making things more difficult for ourselves than need be?

The people of Colorado and the first responders that are doing what they can to save whom and what they can, need all the help the government and all citizens can give them. In the live feeds last night from the Colorado Springs area there were two first response vehicles coming into view in the middle of the raging smoke and burning homes. I felt pity for those crews too as they were constantly met with the sights and smells and nightmare of burning structures, alone in those dark hills, lit only by the hard glow of flames and weighed by smoke and fumes. Feel for the personnel at the Air Force Academy too, who are being evacuated as the fires encroach on that heralded institution with its gleaming chapel.

Oh pray for those who are thus distressed, who feel all is lost and do not feel blessed;/ Oh cherish your ability to think of them and pray,/ If you cannot get out to assist them literally, find then another way/ to think of them and send some help/ to a shelter where so many need relief./ Pray and give whatever you are able, something you can do without/ To bring a hand -up to those displaced, who are sad of heart and long of face/Coloradans, mired in disaster, we pray for thee, and that Christ might somehow ease thy ways with His strong presence and healing touch, knowing you need now so very much; oh let us all do what we can/ for the crying Colorodan.//

Over the decades I have seen my share of fires and storms, floods and winds. When very young we had a minor fire at my parent’s place. No major damage, fortunately.

Many years later there was a terrible electrical fire at the house next door. I cannot forget that scene. In fact when I woke up very early in the AM and looked out at our back yard I thought it was fog rolling across, but quickly I realized it was smoke, and went downstairs. There was a glow on the front lawn, and on going outside there the fire was, blazing out of our neighbor’s roof in bold yellows and oranges. Trouble signals went off in my brain and I woke my folks. The firefighters blazed in and protected our yard, which has very tall trees (and conditions were dry, as I recall), and saved the neighbor’s home from complete destruction, though the damage was significant.

Years after that there was a huge house fire on Woodmont Boulevard, in a home that was about a day away from the people moving in. The fire engines could be heard rolling to the scene and when they stopped I just knew it had to be close, and from the response, potentially large and thus worth exploring to see if anything serious might happen. Well, I walked up to as close to the scene as safely possible, and there it was, this magnificent home we had seen being built going up in thick smoke and flame. There was a workman slumped in shock as he watched the consuming conflagration, lamenting the loss of the cathedral ceiling he worked so hard on. And all that was left were bits and pieces of wall and foundation. But that home has since been rebuilt.

A grocery store fire some years later was one I didn’t stick around long to watch. I saw the response, saw the fire companies attacking it, but when the wind turned and that smoke came my way I made a bee line away from that scene and got inside.

Across our nation there are fires of greater scope than these, raging across the states of Colorado, New Mexico, and Utah. Watching the live pictures this evening of the fires near Colorado Springs and the Air Force Academy, I could not help but feel sorrow for the people who will return and see what remains of their homes. It was plain from the video that many homes were burning, structures blazing rapidly up as the dryness consumes the state and lightning sets off the tinderbox. It is not a good feeling to stand or sit and watch that going on, and it is a hellish scene indeed.

Ironic, isn’t it, that there were a few storms in Colorado, but all they did was set off the fires and did not bring any worthwhile rain? In fact one of the meteorologists said that the air is so dry that the rainfall did not even reach the ground, and the winds from the storms that did materialize served only to fan the fires to what we can see tonight on our televisions. There are only so many first responders for those areas, and it will take a miraculous amount of soaking rain to help control those fires.

And then where is most of the water? Of all places it is in Florida, where certainly those citizens neither need nor want any more water, and where tornadoes have caused even more damage. Floods are washing out neighborhoods, and people there are in danger with trash and snakes in homes and yards. Yet much of the south remains in dry and drought conditions. Too much of one, too much of another, too little of one and the other…

What is happening with our weather? What has caused the extreme dryness in the west and south west and central US, the concentration of rain along the Gulf Coast, and the severe storms that happen more now at night than during the morning or afternoon in parts of the central US and the southern US? Why do storms in Colorado bring dry lightning and no decent rain to bring relief to the beleaguered residents and first responders? Is it El Nino? Is it La Nina? Is it God sending America a series of stern messages?

Whatever we call it or however we feel we have to explain what is going on, there are thousands of people in deep trouble. Now there are different roles we can play, different things we can do. Not all of us are first responders in the literal sense of being a firefighter, paramedic, or police officer, but we can pray and offer money and charitable relief for those affected. We can find out what we can do without so that those so hard – hit by natural disasters can have even the basics for life as they wait in shelters or with relatives or friends.

What can you do without? What… can you do? Think about it…. What will you do?